Written Answers Tuesday 15 March 2005

Scottish Executive

Alcohol Misuse

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the life expectancy is of (a) males and (b) females who (i) drink alcohol above recommended levels, (ii) drink alcohol at recommended levels, (iii) drink alcohol below recommended levels and (iv) abstain from alcohol.

Rhona Brankin: This information is not held centrally.

Autism

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to develop clinical guidelines for adults with autistic spectrum disorders.

Rhona Brankin: Clinical guidelines are developed by the SIGN Council, which is independent of the Scottish Executive. A SIGN guideline for autistic spectrum disorder is currently being developed for children and young people up to the age of 18 years. The guideline will address assessment, diagnosis and clinical interventions. I understand the SIGN Council presently has no proposals to develop clinical guidelines for adults with autistic spectrum disorders.

  The Scottish Executive will shortly be publishing a quality standard for autistic spectrum disorder diagnostic services that will provide a checklist for multi-disciplinary teams, including the consideration of appropriate referrals and clinical interventions for both children and adults.

Autism

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will roll out the one-stop shops for adults with autistic spectrum disorders.

Rhona Brankin: The Scottish Executive is funding two projects which are in the early stages of developing one-stop shops for adults with autistic spectrum disorders. Funding includes an element for evaluation, which is intended to assist other areas in developing models of service to meet local needs. The decision to develop one-stop shops in other areas will be a matter for local agencies.

Crime

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what its response is to the recommendations in the report of the Working Group on Hate Crime.

Malcolm Chisholm: Scottish ministers are considering the detailed recommendations of the Working Group on Hate Crime and will respond to it in due course.

Deafblind People

Mr Kenneth Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many local authorities or NHS boards have made an assessment of the needs of deafblind people and how this number compares with that in England and Wales.

Rhona Brankin: This information is not held centrally.

Deafblind People

Mr Kenneth Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many deafblind people have benefited from services such as guide-communicators in the period 2000 to 2004 and how this number compares with that in England and Wales.

Rhona Brankin: Information on the number of people who use guide communicators is not held centrally.

  Deafblind Scotland receives funds from the Scottish Executive to enable it to train guide communicators and deafblind support workers for deafblind people. Local authorities can purchase this service from Deafblind Scotland for those people assessed as requiring it.

Elderly People

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-29715 by Mr Jim Wallace on 2 October 2002, whether it now collates cases of elder abuse centrally and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

Rhona Brankin: There is no precise legal definition in Scots law on what constitutes elder abuse, nor is there a statutory or operational requirement for the Executive to collect such information.

  In developing our proposals for additional protections for vulnerable adults, however, we will continue to work with a broad range of stakeholders like Age Concern Scotland and Help the Aged to ensure these measures are as comprehensive and inclusive as possible.

Environment

Mr Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken in respect of the reintroduction of species listed under Annex IV of the EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC).

Lewis Macdonald: The Government is obliged, under Article 22(a) of the EU Habitats Directive to study the desirability of re-introducing certain formerly native species to the UK, listed under Annex IV of that directive.

  Scottish ministers are responsible for any decisions on re-introduction of species to Scotland after due consideration of advice from Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) as statutory advisers on nature conservation to the Scottish Executive.

  Scottish ministers are currently considering a proposal by SNH to trial a  re-introduction of the European Beaver which is one of the species listed in Annex IV of the above directive. No other proposals to re-introduce species to Scotland are currently being considered by the Executive.

Fertility Treatment

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when the consultation process on fertility treatment will commence.

Rhona Brankin: The Scottish Executive consultation on fertility treatment will commence in May 2005.

Health

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether any research has been carried out into the safety of selling analgesics as general sales list medicines outwith community pharmacies.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) are responsible for the safety, quality and efficacy of medicines available on the UK market.

  In the case of analgesics and other medicines, before a medicine is classified for General Sales List (GSL) availability, the Medicines Act 1968 (reserved legislation) requires UK ministers to be satisfied that the medicine can, with reasonable safety, be sold or supplied other than by or under the supervision of a pharmacist. Patient safety is always the main consideration in a decision to classify a medicine and must be supported by information on its safe use without professional advice.

  The MHRA keeps the safety of all medicines under review and whenever necessary takes appropriate action to safeguard public health.

  Detailed information about the legal classification of any medicine in the UK can be accessed on the MHRA website www.mhra.gov.uk.

Health

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions there have been for selling multiple packs of proprietary medicines in non-pharmacy outlets in each of the last five years.

Mr Andy Kerr: The sale and supply of medicines on the General Sales List Order are controlled under Section 53 of the Medicines Act 1968.

  In Scotland, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency enforces the Medicines Act 1968 on behalf of Scottish ministers. A check of records did not show prosecutions in Scotland in the past five years for selling multiple packs of proprietary medicines in non-pharmacy outlets.

Health

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive which organisation is responsible for overseeing sales of proprietary medicines from non-pharmacy retail outlets.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) enforces the provisions of the Medicines Act 1968 and associated secondary legislation which regulate the sale, supply and administration of all medicines available in the UK. This includes authorised medicines available on general sale from outlets other than pharmacies.

  Information about the work of the MHRA can be accessed at www.mhra.gov.uk.

Health

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many preparations were reviewed by the Scottish Medicines Consortium in each year since its inception and how many such preparations were approved.

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish details of all preparations (a) approved and (b) rejected by the Scottish Medicines Consortium.

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish details of the uptake of all new preparations approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, broken down by NHS board.

Mr Andy Kerr: The total number of preparations reviewed by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) in each year since its inception and the number of preparations approved is illustrated in the following table.

  Details of all preparations submitted to the SMC can be found at www.scottishmedicines.org including whether they were accepted for use, accepted for restricted use or not recommended for use.

  All NHSScotland boards should take account of the advice and evidence from the SMC and ensure that recommended medicines are made available to meet clinical need. Where this does not happen it will be followed up proactively.

  

 
2002
2003
2004


Full submissions
28 
46 
52 


Resubmissions
1 
8 
5 


Abbreviated submissions
0
6 
16 


Independent Review Panel
0
1 
1 


Non-Submissions
0
1 
0 


Total
29
62
74



  The total breakdown of assessments undertaken according to SMC categories of recommendations are as follows:

  

 
2002
2003
2004


Accepted for use
9 
16 
31 


Accepted for restricted use
13 
27 
24 


Not recommended for use
7 
19 
19 


Total
29
62
74

Health

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make a ministerial statement on any difficulties associated with the eCare programme and, if so, when.

Rhona Brankin: There are no significant difficulties with the eCare Programme, therefore there will be no ministerial statement at this time. All local eCare partnerships will deliver the required outcomes by summer 2005.

Health

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether NHS board action plans produced in line with the findings of the fatal accident inquiry about the death of my constituent, James Mauchland, will be publicly available.

Rhona Brankin: Individual NHS boards are responsible for determining arrangements for publicising these or any other service planning documents. Most such documents are now also likely to be available under the Freedom of Information Act.

Health

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether NHS board action plans produced in line with the findings of the fatal accident inquiry about the death of my constituent, James Mauchland, will be evaluated to ensure that people with learning disabilities and other vulnerable patients are treated with dignity, respect and equality.

Rhona Brankin: The Scottish Executive Health Department has asked NHS Board Chief Executives to report on progress in addressing the matters arising from the fatal accident inquiry. We will examine the reports carefully with a view to identifying and disseminating good practice.

Health

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that any good practice guidance arising from the evaluation of NHS board action plans produced in line with the findings of the fatal accident inquiry into the death of James Mauchland is disseminated across all NHS boards and that appropriate training will be in place.

Rhona Brankin: The Scottish Executive Health Department has asked NHS board chief executives to report on progress in addressing matters arising from the fatal accident inquiry and inviting them to highlight examples of good practice. The department will be working with the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability and ENABLE to arrange a seminar later this year to consider and share these examples. NHS Quality Improvement Scotland also plans to develop a good practice statement on access to generic services for people with learning disabilities. This will support the quality indicator framework for these services that it has already developed.

Health

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-1233 by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 July 2003, what action has been taken by each NHS board on the recommendations of the fatal accident inquiry into the death of James Mauchland.

Rhona Brankin: I refer to my answers to questions S2W-15003 and S2W-15004 on 15 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

  The Scottish Executive Health Department has asked NHS Board Chief Executives to report on progress in addressing matters arising from the fatal accident inquiry. This is a follow up to the Department’s letter of 10 March 2004 which asked Chief Executives to arrange for clinical and other staff to review care and treatment practice in the light of the findings and to implement key learning points where necessary.

Health

Margaret Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the same definition of fistula in the treatment of patients on peritoneal dialysis and haemodialysis applies across Scotland.

Mr Andy Kerr: I refer to my answers to previous questions S2W-14204, S2W-14205, S2W-14206 on 3 March 2005 and to my answer to S2W-15071 on 14 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

  The NHS (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) (Scotland) Regulations do not include a definition of "fistula" or any other medical term in the regulations used to describe chronic conditions which confer exemption from prescription charges.

  Applications for exemption from charges on medical grounds must be supported by the patient’s doctor. Doctors reach a decision based on their medical knowledge and knowledge of individual patients.

Health

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish the follow-up report to the Scottish Needs Assessment Programme Report on Huntington’s Disease, Acquired Brain Injury and Early Onset Dementia.

Rhona Brankin: The Scottish Needs Assessment Programme (SNAP) issued its report on Huntington’s Disease, Acquired Brain Injury and Early Onset Dementia in February 2000 in order to assess progress in implementation. The Scottish Executive Health Department then commissioned a review to report on what changes had been made. The aims of the review were:

  To affirm the Executive’s commitment to meeting the needs of people with these conditions.

  To raise awareness of these conditions at a strategic level.

  To examine what progress had been made since the SNAP report.

  To summarise key issues.

  Following receipt of the review report the Chief Medical Officer wrote, in July 2003, to chief executives of NHS boards and NHS trusts, Directors of Public Health and of Social Work and a number of other bodies including the Scottish Head Injury Forum and Alzheimer Scotland drawing attention to the key areas still to be addressed in promoting best practice. A full copy of the review report has been made available to any respondents who requested it. It is therefore already in the public domain and a copy has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.

Higher Education

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-11821 by Mr Jim Wallace on 10 November 2005, what the drop-out rate for students was from Scottish universities in 2002-03.

Mr Jim Wallace: There is no single measure that captures the drop-out rate. Since 1996-97, the Higher Education Statistics Agency has published a range of indicators relating to student retention within the higher education system. For information on these indicators, I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-11821 on 10 November 2004. The data in the table in S2W-11821 includes information up to 2001-02. Data for 2002-03 is not yet available.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

Housing

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis it has carried out in respect of the Empty Homes Initiative.

Malcolm Chisholm: In September 1999, the Scottish Executive commissioned a detailed evaluation of the Empty Homes Initiative from Caledonian Economics Ltd, in association with Arneil Johnston. The evaluation report was published by the Scottish Executive in February 2001.

Housing

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken any to identify land owned by public bodies which may be made available for housing development and what these steps are.

Malcolm Chisholm: We are working to improve arrangements with other public bodies and UK government departments for the disposal of surplus public sector land to make use of such land for housing where appropriate. This work is being taken forward jointly with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

  A key focus is the development of new agreements for the identification and release by public bodies of sites suitable for affordable housing. The Executive has already agreed a land release policy with Forestry Commission Scotland. The commission now provides a preferential opportunity for registered social landlords, supported by Communities Scotland, to acquire its surplus land for affordable housing.

International Development

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans the First Minister has to provide more detailed information on the international development policy.

Patricia Ferguson: The First Minister is placing copies of the international development policy with the Parliament’s Reference Centre today, (Bib. No. 35726).

Legislation

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive which provisions of Acts of Parliament that received Royal Assent between 3 May 1979 and 31 December 2003 and that deal with issues devolved to the Scottish Parliament have not yet been brought into force and on what dates it expects these provisions will be brought into force.

Ms Margaret Curran: The information requested is not held in this form. However, full details of the commencement dates of provisions in Acts of Parliament passed between 1 January 1979 and 31 December 2003, together with provisions not yet in force as at 17 February 2004, can be found in Is it in Force? 2004 published by LexisNexis, Butterworths.

Licensing

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to introduce proposals that would ensure that all licensed establishments offered reasonably-priced soft drinks and made water free to their customers.

Tavish Scott: The Licensing (Scotland) Bill, published on 1 March 2005, proposes that licensed premises should provide tap water free of charge and that other non-alcoholic drinks must be available for purchase at a reasonable price. Both conditions would apply to premises authorised to sell alcohol for consumption on the premises.

National Health Service

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) GP practices, (b) dental practices and (c) community pharmacies are connected to an interactive national database, broken down by NHS board area.

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when all GP and dental practices and community pharmacies will be connected to an interactive national database.

Mr Andy Kerr: No GP practices, dental practices or community pharmacies are connected to an interactive national database.

  I can advise, however, that there are plans to connect these health care professionals to a secure communications network, NHSnet/N3, which will provide access to a secure clinical mail service, Scottish Health on the Web and other national clinical and information systems as and when they become available.

  At present, the following have been connected to NHSnet/N3:

  all computerised GP practices in Scotland, over 99% of practices, and

  community pharmacists in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, Forth Valley, Orkney, Shetland and Tayside.

  The current plan is for all community pharmacists to be connected by September 2005. The Executive is also committed to connecting general dental practice to NHSnet/N3 and plans for this are being prepared.

National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has issued, or will issue, any statutory guidance to National Park Authorities in respect of the workings and application of section 8 of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000.

Lewis Macdonald: Statutory guidance relating to Section 8 of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 - as set out at schedule 1 to the act – was issued to the National Park Authorities in the relevant Designation Orders and Elections Orders. Both park authorities also have an Ethical Standards Code of Conduct in place for their board members, as required of bodies listed under Schedule 3 to the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc. (Scotland) Act 2000. There are no plans at present to issue any further guidance under the terms of schedule 1 to the 2000 act to the two established National Park Authorities.

Royal Visits

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much it spent on events and functions attended by members of the royal family in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004, broken down by (i) local authority area and (ii) police force area.

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total cost to government bodies, agencies and other public bodies involved in royal visits was in (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001, (d) 2002, (e) 2003 and (f) 2004, broken down into (i) direct expenditure and (ii) cost of time spent in administering and overseeing such visits.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive does not hold the information for agencies or other public bodies. A proportion of Scottish Executive staff time is spent in administering visits by members of the Royal Family but we cannot provide yearly breakdowns as records of this type are not held. We estimate that, for 2004, the cost of staff time was approximately £2000 to £2500.

  The Executive also runs and pays for a small number of events most years where members of the Royal Family are in attendance. The information we hold on cost and location is set out below.

  

Year
Cost £000
Location


1999
2
Stirling


2000
1
Edinburgh


2002
0
 


2003
33
Edinburgh


2004
1
Edinburgh



  The 2003 figure of £33,000 relates to the Union of the Crowns Dinner, attended by The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of York and hosted by the First Minister.

Scottish Executive

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to implement the recommendations made in the Tenth Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Getting the Balance Right: Implementing Standards of Conduct in Public Life , published in January 2005.

Tavish Scott: The Tenth Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Getting the Balance Right: Implementing Standards of Conduct in Public Life , was submitted to the Prime Minister on 19 January 2005 and the UK Government will respond in due course. The Scottish Executive provided the committee with evidence on the Scottish situation with regards to certain areas of ethical standards and public appointments which are devolved areas. We intend to monitor the developments and will consider what, if any, action need be taken by the Scottish Executive. It should be noted that there were no recommendations made to the Scottish Executive.

Scottish Water

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will prioritise the projects that will benefit under the recently-announced plans to connect 120,000 homes to the water and sewerage network and who will make the final decision on the matter.

Lewis Macdonald: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-14582 on 1 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search .

Vulnerable Adults Bill

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether, following the completion of the consultation in April 2004 on protecting vulnerable adults, it has any plans to introduce a Vulnerable Adults Bill in this session.

Rhona Brankin: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-13486 on 28 January 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search .

Vulnerable Adults Bill

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what extra-parliamentary representations it has received regarding progress on a Vulnerable Adults Bill.

Rhona Brankin: To date, extra-parliamentary representations regarding progress on a Vulnerable Adults Bill have been received from a range of organisations and individuals, and as a result of the Help the Aged’s New Years Resolution campaign.

  We will take all such representations into account as we develop our legislative proposals.

Wildlife

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to ban the shooting of birds or animals as a sport.

Patricia Ferguson: The shooting of birds or animals is not recognised by the Sports Councils in the UK as a sport.

  The shooting of wild animals or birds will be outside the scope of the new Animal Welfare Legislation which we hope to introduce to Parliament in September.

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

Holyrood Project

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body  whether it has considered how to take forward the proposal by Lord Fraser in his report on the Holyrood project that section 21 of the Scotland Act 1998 should be amended in respect of its powers and whether it has any plans to initiate a debate on this matter in the Parliament.

George Reid: This matter has been considered. As it is not foreseeable that the SPCB would ever be responsible for another project of this magnitude and significance it was thought unlikely that wider powers in this respect would be needed. This decision was intimated to the Convener of the Finance Committee in my letter of 24 February.

  The SPCB has no plans to initiate a debate on this matter in the Parliament.